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Foundations of Project Management

Explore the fundamental aspects of project management and develop your understanding of traditional project lifecycles.

41,604 enrolled on this course

  • Duration

    2 weeks
  • Weekly study

    3 hours
This course is part of the program Project Management, which is one of the building blocks that leads to a degree in Master of Business Administration. Find out more.

Discover the principles of project management

What is project management? What are the essential concepts of project management? What factors affect the state of a project? Answer these questions and others with this course.

You’ll be taught the essentials of project management, including theoretical and applied perspectives. You’ll study project constraints such as cost, time, and resources.

You’ll also look at the role and the skills of project managers and investigate the opportunities for further professional development.

You’ll discuss and demonstrate competence in selecting and starting a project within an organisational context.

What topics will you cover?

  • Core concepts of project management, including the prerequisites for a project (the business case), project management and the role of the project manager
  • Project phases and processes, such as traditional project life cycles
  • Factors important to project selection and prioritisation, as evidenced by organisational capability and available resource capacity

When would you like to start?

  • Date to be announced

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Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Assess the importance of project management in the context of various organisational cultures and strategies, and summarise the essential components of a project, and the processes considered essential for its successful completion
  • Describe the project phases that make up a typical project, and summarise the project management processes that occur within each. Explain the relationships between subject areas, process groups, and processes
  • Describe the typical project management process, its documentation and deliverables that are produced in each project phase
  • Evaluate factors important to project selection and prioritisation as evidenced by organisational capability and available resource capacity

Who is the course for?

This course is for anyone interested in project management.

Please note that the individuals detailed in the ‘Who will you learn with?’ section below, are current staff members and may be subject to change.

Who will you learn with?

Dr Dennis Chapman is a Lecturer in Project Management and Deputy Course Director for the BA in Business Management at Coventry University’s School of Strategy and Leadership (SSL).

Who developed the course?

Coventry University

Coventry secured 5 QS Stars for Teaching and Online Learning in the QS World University Ranking 2020 and has received No. 1 in the world for Massive Open Online Courses in MoocLab’s World University Ranking 2021.

  • Established

    1992
  • Location

    Coventry

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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Advance your career with a degree

Since 2017 you have been able to take a degree on FutureLearn. This free course is a bit like a starter course for a degree — it should give you a flavour of the degree subject but can also be your first step towards a degree qualification.

If you enjoy this course you can apply to join the program it’s part of to start working towards a degree on FutureLearn.

Don’t worry, you can still take the course without doing a full degree!

Do the free course
Join and complete the program
Get academic credit for an online degree from Coventry University
This course is part of the program Project Management, which is one of the building blocks that leads to a degree in Master of Business Administration.

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